Lots of email from folks noting that simply because a Pope was from Africa doesn’t mean he was black. True enough. Some emailers say I misread Steyn on this point. Not true. He wrote:

We live in a present-tense culture where novelty is its own virtue: the Guardian, for example, has already been touting the Nigerian Francis Arinze as “candidate for first black pope”. This would be news to Pope St Victor, an African and pontiff from 189 to 199. Among his legacies: the celebration of Easter on a Sunday.

I don’t know how to read this except as Steyn strongly suggesting that Victor was “the first black pope” not the first African pope.